Sallasutta—Bhikkhu Sujato
Both ordinary and awakened people experience the three feelings. The difference is that when an ordinary person is stricken with feeling, they react, creating more suffering, whereas an awakened person responds with equanimity.
“Mendicants, an unlearned ordinary person feels pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. A learned noble disciple also feels pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. What, then, is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an ordinary unlearned person?”
“Our teachings are rooted in the Buddha. …”
“When an unlearned ordinary person experiences painful physical feelings they sorrow and wail and lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience two feelings: physical and mental.
It’s like a person who is struck with an arrow, only to be struck with a second arrow. That person experiences the feeling of two arrows.
In the same way, when an unlearned ordinary person experiences painful physical feelings they sorrow and wail and lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience two feelings: physical and mental.
When they’re touched by painful feeling, they resist it. The underlying tendency for repulsion towards painful feeling underlies that.
When touched by painful feeling they look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures. Why is that? Because an unlearned ordinary person doesn’t understand any escape from painful feeling apart from sensual pleasures. Since they look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures, the underlying tendency to greed for pleasant feeling underlies that.
They don’t truly understand feelings’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. The underlying tendency to ignorance about neutral feeling underlies that.
If they feel a pleasant feeling, they feel it attached. If they feel a painful feeling, they feel it attached. If they feel a neutral feeling, they feel it attached.
They’re called an unlearned ordinary person who is attached to rebirth, old age, and death, to sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress; who is attached to suffering, I say.
When a learned noble disciple experiences painful physical feelings they don’t sorrow or wail or lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience one feeling: physical, not mental.
It’s like a person who is struck with an arrow, but was not struck with a second arrow. That person would experience the feeling of one arrow.
In the same way, when a learned noble disciple experiences painful physical feelings they don’t sorrow or wail or lament, beating their breast and falling into confusion. They experience one feeling: physical, not mental.
When they’re touched by painful feeling, they don’t resist it. There’s no underlying tendency for repulsion towards painful feeling underlying that.
When touched by painful feeling they don’t look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures. Why is that? Because a learned noble disciple understands an escape from painful feeling apart from sensual pleasures. Since they don’t look forward to enjoying sensual pleasures, there’s no underlying tendency to greed for pleasant feeling underlying that.
They truly understand feelings’ origin, ending, gratification, drawback, and escape. There’s no underlying tendency to ignorance about neutral feeling underlying that.
If they feel a pleasant feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a painful feeling, they feel it detached. If they feel a neutral feeling, they feel it detached.
They’re called a learned noble disciple who is detached from rebirth, old age, and death, from sorrow, lamentation, pain, sadness, and distress; who is detached from suffering, I say.
This is the difference between a learned noble disciple and an unlearned ordinary person.
A wise and learned person isn’t affected
by feelings of pleasure and pain.
This is the great difference in skill
between the wise and the ordinary.
A learned person who has appraised the teaching
discerns this world and the next.
Desirable things don’t disturb their mind,
nor are they repelled by the undesirable.
Both favoring and opposing
are cleared and ended, they are no more.
Knowing the stainless, sorrowless state,
they who have gone beyond rebirth
understand rightly.”
Conditioned (impermanent) feelings are of three classes:
- Pleasant - excitement, happiness, elation, thrill, euphoria, joy
- Unpleasant - anger, sadness, frustration, anxiety, shame, fear, ill-will, jealousy
- Neither pleasant nor unpleasant - shyness, boredom, loneliness, discomfort, melancholy
An unEnlightened mind is craving and clinging for pleasant feelings and experiencing an aversion towards unpleasant and neither pleasant nor unpleasant feelings.
An enlightened mind has overcome ignorance (any misconceiving of true reality) with respect to the feelings aggregate and is no longer craving for pleasant feelings or experiencing an aversion with respect to unpleasant or neutral feelings. None of the feelings are ever taken or seen as personal; for the mind has fully reflected and seen the not-self nature in all the feelings.
Related Teachings:
- Gradual training, gradual practice and gradual progress (MN 107) - The gradual training guidelines provided by the Buddha are encouraging one to not seek gratification in external forms. Gradually, as one is purifying the mind by ethical conduct, sense restraint, and being moderate in eating, they are not experiencing any grasping of the external form aggregate and have replaced it with wise decision-making instead.
- As one is practicing further by dedicating to wakefulness, practicing situational awareness - one is extending wise decision-making in all that they do.
- By non-clinging and non-involvement with the external form aggregate, one is then able to be in seclusion and cultivate jhānas.
- Consciousness stands dependent on the other four aggregates (SN 22.53) - The Buddha shares on how consciousness can only stand dependent on the four aggregates. As one becomes more aware of the grasping at the four aggregates of form, feeling, perceptions and volitions, and is cultivating wisdom in place, is cultivating harmony in place, one is gradually letting go of this grasping.
- Teachings on Living Beings and the Five Aggregates - A collection of teachings to understand living beings and the five aggregates. All experiences that a living being experiences is only of one or more of the five aggregates. Understanding the five aggregates is essential to understanding the four noble truths.
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